Naturally all my creations contain imperfections - if I had a label I'd call it "Inferior Design".

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Double Bagging

James' swimming gear bag was a plastic rucksack that he picked up at the Vienna marathon. It eventually wore out two years ago, so I took the opportunity of his recent absence, visiting his parents, to stitch a violently coloured replacement. This is very much like the simple sack design, with slightly different solution at the bottom. The fabric is very stretchy, but it doesn't carry much weight, so that might not matter too much. I put a length of webbing inside the bottom of the bag, going widthways, attached to the bag at the edges. The edges of the webbing stick outside the bag to form loops, and cord is passed through these to form the straps.

Then there was the tiny running bumbag requirement. The original was a bag picked up at a race. There was a complaint that the zipper had broken so new was required. So I made a slightly generous replacement, only to find that his mobile phone would not fit in it without forcing it horribly. "Yes", says James, "that's the whole point. I need a bigger one." Pity he didn't tell me that at the start, but never mind, I had enough fabric to try again. I used the original webbing and some powerdry type of material for the body of the bag. There is a strip of elastic inside the bag to take a bit of the strain and also to use to stop things rattling about. And I attached some bright and reflective material as it is now so black it will get lost otherwise. Result seems to have gained approval from the running man.